If You Believe in Magic--humalong

If you believe in smaller government or constitutional conservatism (the new GOP rage), it seems to me you cut federal spending but increase state and local spending because it's still called government. But the new House is the Gong Show.

Andrew Sullivan, who is in love with the austerity program of the British Conservative Party,dissected Paul Ryan's Blueprint for the Future and the other day finally proclaimed him a fraud. The reason is that Ryan has spent the last two days blaming the national debt on Nancy Pelosi. In fact, Ryan claims that all the deficits have been run up in the House since Nancy Pelosi was speaker. And his echochamber Fox News ran with this nonsense yesterday. Sullivan's point is that a man who actually would say these things is not serious about deficits or the national debt. The basic causes of the explosion of the national debt are two wars, the Bush tax cuts, unfunded entitlement programs like Medicare D, and the recession. If you can't honestly talk about these things, you have no busy pretending you are a deficit hawk or a so-called expert of the national debt.

The Repeal the Job-Killing Health Reform Bill has run into more problems than just the CBO estimate it would add $230 billion--upwards to $300 billion--to the national deficit. Apparently, the new House had to abandon their Cut-Go rules because they would have to come up with an equal amount of cuts to pay for their repeal. So the best way to deal with this is simply forget your own new rules.

So let's see--repeal of healthcare costs 400,000 jobs, cut $100 billion from the federal government costs 1 million jobs. John Boehner is doing what President Obama said--taking the country into reverse.

But the new House solved climate change. They simply eliminated the subcommittee. No subcommittee no problem.

They also got rid of the Labor in the Labor committee.

Remember Glenn Beck's fixation on Tsars in the Obama Administration. The House has introduced a bill to eliminate them. And you wondered about the separation of powers-heh?

Virginia Foxx, the teabagger from North Carolina, is now the head of the Education Committee. Virginia says that well-meaning people passed funds for education before but the federal government has no role in education. Her first act will be to "investigate the new student loan reform" because it is insidious. It's probably one of the best moves done by the Obama Administration.

New Jersey Democratic Congressman Holt was on the Rachel Maddow Show last night lamenting the fact-free attitudes of his new republican colleagues. Holt has some experience in science and technology because he really is a rocket scientist. He hinted that Congressman Hall from Texas, an 87-year old representative, may not understand the gravity of the challenges facing the country in terms of scientific and technological competition. Hall wants to begin his tenure by holding hearings on how Climate Change is a hoax.

This will please the Koch Brothers who fund every program in the United States devoted to debunking climate change.

The problem the new Republicans have is that now they are in charge of the House, they have to expose themselves publicly. In the Bush-Cheney Administration, you could have a Spencer Abraham as head of Energy doing the bidding of the oil companies and allowing the Mines and Mineral Management group to watch porno all day and you would never know. You would not hear about Dick Cheney killing all the Salmon river until a year or two later. Here the House Republicans are in clear view and the sight isn't pretty.

The new House leadership has already abandoned their campaign promises. They will not cite the Constitutional authority for their first few repeal anything Obama has done bills. They have abandoned their open rules , which would have allowed Democrats to suggest amendments. They have already abandoned Cut-Go until they have a convenient opportunity. They are already saying they will abandon their pledge to cut $100 billion in one year. That's already in the first 24 hours.

Michael Steele in all his candor was right when he told the nation last year that the Republicans were not up to the task of governing. What was on display the last two days was the consequences of the epistemic closure of the conservative mind. If there was some underlying theory or even ideology to the Republicans' actions, then we could have a lively debate.

Ed Schultz claims that the House is going to pass all these repeals of what Obama has done and then blame Democrats because they are not enacted and run on that in 2012. I simply don't believe this. I really do believe the new Republicans simply do not know what they're doing. It was plan in the last two days from procedure to content. This is a make-it-up as you go crowd.

Ironically, I think John Boehner looking to Obama to bail him out. Take yesterday's press conference. Earlier in the day Bob Gates announced plans for $78 billion in defense cuts over ten years. John Boehner was asked whether defense was on the table for cuts and he said "yes", which broke another Republican campaign pledge not to cut defense. The reason--$78billion is only $22 billion away from meeting his political goal of $100 billion. Watch the game as President Obama will agree to substantial cuts and then John Boehner will run out and say in return he will support raising the debt ceiling. He didn't have to move a muscle and he can proclaim himself a success.